Design and experimental validation of a software-defined radio access network testbed with slicing support

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems to partition a single network into a number of segregated logical networks, each optimized for a particular type of service or dedicated to a particular customer or application. The realization of network slicing is particularly challenging in the Radio Access Network (RAN) part, where multiple slices can be multiplexed over the same radio channel and Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions shall be used to split the cell radio resources and achieve the expected behaviour per slice. In this context, this paper describes the key design and implementation aspects of a Software-Defined RAN (SD-RAN) experimental testbed with slicing support. The testbed has been designed consistently with the slicing capabilities and related management framework established by 3GPP in Release 15. The testbed is used to demonstrate the provisioning of RAN slices (e.g., preparation, commissioning, and activation phases) and the operation of the implemented RRM functionality for slice-aware admission control and scheduling.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A Convolutional Attention Based Deep Network Solution for UAV Network Attack Recognition over Fading Channels and Interference

When users exchange data with Unmanned Aerial vehicles - (UAVs) over air-to-ground (A2G) wireless communication networks, they expose the link to attacks that could increase packet loss and might disrupt connectivity. For example, in emergency deliveries, losing control information (i.e data related to the UAV control communication) might result in accidents that cause UAV destruction and damage to buildings or other elements in a city. To prevent these problems, these issues must be addressed in 5G and 6G scenarios. This research offers a deep learning (DL) approach for detecting attacks in UAVs equipped with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receivers on Clustered Delay Line (CDL) channels in highly complex scenarios involving authenticated terrestrial users, as well as attackers in unknown locations. We use the two observable parameters available in 5G UAV connections: the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR). The prospective algorithm is generalizable regarding attack identification, which does not occur during training. Further, it can identify all the attackers in the environment with 20 terrestrial users. A deeper investigation into the timing requirements for recognizing attacks show that after training, the minimum time necessary after the attack begins is 100 ms, and the minimum attack power is 2 dBm, which is the same power that the authenticated UAV uses. Our algorithm also detects moving attackers from a distance of 500 m.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

D13.3 Overall assessment of selected techniques on energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications

Deliverable D13.3 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the outcome of the Joint Research Activities (JRA) of WP1.3 in the last year of the Newcom# project. The activities focus on the investigation of bandwidth and energy efficient techniques for current and emerging wireless systems. The JRAs are categorized in three Tasks: (i) the first deals with techniques for power efficiency and minimization at the transceiver and network level; (ii) the second deals with the handling of interference by appropriate low interference transmission techniques; (iii) the third is concentrated on Radio Resource Management (RRM) and Interference Management (IM) in selected scenarios, including HetNets and multi-tier networks.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

D13.1 Fundamental issues on energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications and networking

Deliverable D13.1 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the current status in the research area of energy- and bandwidth-efficient communications and networking and highlights the fundamental issues still open for further investigation. Furthermore, the report presents the Joint Research Activities (JRAs) which will be performed within WP1.3. For each activity there is the description, the identification of the adherence with the identified fundamental open issues, a presentation of the initial results, and a roadmap for the planned joint research work in each topic.Preprin

Novel radio environment map for the ns-3 NR simulator

Radio Environmental Map (REM) is a useful tool to visualize the network coverage, including signal quality and interference, in multi-cell scenarios. Although REM maps for omnidirectional transmissions/receptions and tools to visualize the spatial shape of a single directional transmission are available in ns-3, for example in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiGig modules, respectively, REM maps for directional transmissions/receptions in multi-cell scenarios are not available yet, despite the fact that they constitute an extremely useful tool for the beam design phase in complex realistic settings. In this paper, we present a REM map implementation that includes various REM map definitions for multi-cell scenarios with directional transmissions/receptions. This includes Beam Shape REM maps, in which a pre-configured beam at each transmitting device is used, and Coverage Area REM maps, in which a worst-case propagation scenario is considered for each location, assuming the worst-case directional interference towards each point of reception of the REM map. We particularize REM maps for Downlink (DL) and Uplink (UL) communications, as well as for heterogeneous networks and scenarios with blockages originated by the surrounding environment. Finally, we present multiple illustrative images as examples of each of the possible REM maps that can be extracted with the newly developed tool. The work presented in this paper is publicly available in the 5G-LENA module.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish MINECO grant TEC2017-88373-R (5G-REFINE) and Generalitat de Catalunya grant 2017 SGR 1195. The work received funding from the USA Defense Spectrum Organization (DSO) under the Spectrum Sharing Test and Demonstration (SSTD) Program in the context of the S3 project. The authors would also like to acknowledge Peter Barnes at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. and the S3 team for feedbacks and fruitful collaborations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Calibration of the 5G-LENA System Level Simulator in 3GPP reference scenarios

Due to the rapid technology evolution and standardization activity in the mobile communication networks, there is the need for the research community to be able to develop, test and evaluate new and/or already xisting solutions before industrial or real-network implementation. As such, it is essential to have an open-source tool that provides an alternative solution to that of industrial proprietary simulators that are not available for public usage. ns-3 5G-LENA simulator is an end-to-end open-source NR system-level simulator that allows extensive research to be performed. However, it is of great importance to guarantee that the results obtained using the simulator can be comparable to that of industrial simulators and real networks. For this reason, calibrating the simulator based on 3GPP defined specifications is crucial. Based on the above, in this paper we calibrate the ns-3 5G-LENA simulator according to the 3GPP reference results for NR-based outdoor deployments. Moreover, we explore the REM feature provided by the simulator, to ease the calibration process and understand better the radio environment. Results show the resemblance of the simulator performance to that of simulators used as references by 3GPP

On enhancing almost blank subframes management for efficient eICIC in HetNets

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) have been a crucial point in the evolution of mobile networks that boost the network performance with the addition of small cells. The use of Enhanced ICIC (eICIC) techniques such as Almost Blank Subframes (ABS) has been introduced in HetNets to protect the small cells from high interferences. However this is done at the expense of lower macrocell user capacities. In this respect, in this work we propose a solution that starts from the principles of ABS and exploits jointly the dimensions of frequency, power and time in order to balance the trade-off between interference mitigation on the small cells and capacity degradation in the macrocells. Comparisons against the classical ABS and other existing solutions show the efficiency of the proposed scheme with improvements in the user capacity that reach up to 26% in the considered scenarios. This is achieved without significant degradation of the performance observed by small cell users.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

On enhancing almost blank subframes management for efficient eICIC in HetNets

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) have been a crucial point in the evolution of mobile networks that boost the network performance with the addition of small cells. The use of Enhanced ICIC (eICIC) techniques such as Almost Blank Subframes (ABS) has been introduced in HetNets to protect the small cells from high interferences. However this is done at the expense of lower macrocell user capacities. In this respect, in this work we propose a solution that starts from the principles of ABS and exploits jointly the dimensions of frequency, power and time in order to balance the trade-off between interference mitigation on the small cells and capacity degradation in the macrocells. Comparisons against the classical ABS and other existing solutions show the efficiency of the proposed scheme with improvements in the user capacity that reach up to 26% in the considered scenarios. This is achieved without significant degradation of the performance observed by small cell users.Peer Reviewe

RAN slicing for multi-tenancy support in a WLAN scenario

Radio Access Network (RAN) slicing is a key technology, based on Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), which aims at providing a more efficient utilization of the available network resources and the reduction of the operational costs. On that respect, in this demo a Wireless LAN hypervisor is presented that is based on a time variant scheduling mechanism and that is able to follow the dynamicity of the traffic variations seen by the different tenants in the network Access Points (APs). The work builds upon the 5G-EmPOWER tool kit, which is provided with SDN and NFV capabilities. During this demo it will be shown that the proposed hypervisor is able to dynamically assign, in every AP of the network, the appropriate resources per tenant according to their traffic requirements.This work has been supported by the RAMSES (Ref. TEC2013-41698-R), funded by CICYT (Spain).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Design and experimental validation of a software-defined radio access network testbed with slicing support

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems to partition a single network into a number of segregated logical networks, each optimized for a particular type of service or dedicated to a particular customer or application. The realization of network slicing is particularly challenging in the Radio Access Network (RAN) part, where multiple slices can be multiplexed over the same radio channel and Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions shall be used to split the cell radio resources and achieve the expected behaviour per slice. In this context, this paper describes the key design and implementation aspects of a Software-Defined RAN (SD-RAN) experimental testbed with slicing support. The testbed has been designed consistently with the slicing capabilities and related management framework established by 3GPP in Release 15. The testbed is used to demonstrate the provisioning of RAN slices (e.g., preparation, commissioning, and activation phases) and the operation of the implemented RRM functionality for slice-aware admission control and scheduling.Peer Reviewe